What's In A Name?
by MoonlightMask
Summary: After the battle, after the return, after the stories and explanations there was really only one mystery that the people of Berk had not seen solved: why did Hiccup name a Night Furry something as stupid as Toothless?


**I had this idea stuck in my head for quite a while now and finally I had to break it out. I've seen the trailers for the sequel and they are amazing, I just hope that the end product lives up the expectation. It would be very ironic if the first movie trailers sucked and the movie was great and then in the second movie they made really great trailers and a subpar movie, so let's keep our fingers crossed.**

**How to Train Your Dragon is the property of DreamWorks and not mine.**

**I'm very sorry for any grammatical errors you might encounter.**

**Please enjoy.**

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><p>What's In A Name?<p>

Three weeks have passed since Hiccup defeated the Dragon Queen, and two and a half since the new greatest hero of Berk awaken from his coma and was welcomed back to the land of the living. Slowly the reality began to sink in for the people of Berk, the war was over, truly over, no longer would they go to bed fearing that a dragon would set their house on fire, no longer would they struggle and worry during the long cruel winter that a raid of dragons would steal the little they have left to feed on, no longer would their children would have to carry an axe before they could learn how to properly talk. They were free, finally free.

At last they could dedicate themselves to other things besides battles, finally they could be farmers, fishermen or builders, finally they could play with their children without keeping constant guard over their shoulder afraid that a dragon would snatch the little one away and now they could immerse themselves in the new found joy of flight.

A few days after his awakening, Hiccup had begun teaching them how to deal with dragons. For dragons were dangerous, even Hiccup had to say that, and although they were not the blood-thirsty monsters Vikings had always believed them to be one had to have some safety measurements and a lot of education when dealing with giant fire-spitting reptiles with mouths full of sharp, pointy teeth.

Over the next few days Hiccup's lectures and stories had opened eyes, both in the minds of the people as in literally. Everybody had stared open mouthed as the scrawniest looking boy the village had ever produced tamed a Monstrous Nightmare in front of their very eyes and, in the matter of seconds, reduced him to the level of a kitten, calmly scratching the belly of what had once one of their most fierce enemies.

If that had not been enough to convince them that dragons were no longer the enemy all you had to do was to observe the Night Furry, when someone sustained an injury as great as Hiccup's they usually needed crutches but not Hiccup, not because he cured exceptionally fast but because the dragon was there, and every time Hiccup stumbled the dragon would catch him before he could even touch the ground, and every time Hiccup was tired Toothless pick Hiccup up, placed him on his back and carried him to wherever he had to go, and in general acted like a crutch to the injured boy. One village swears that he saw when one day while walking (or limping) to the Great Hall the boy had collapsed in pain on the grass, removing the prosthetic in his pain to massage the injured limb the dragon had tenderly licked the wound, crooning softly and sadly, truly sorry for the pain of his friend. And who could forget that time in the forge when Hiccup complained of hunger and the dragon had promptly regurgitated a half-eaten fish onto the boy's lap in an act although incredibly disgusting was not without its tenderness.

Yes, the people of Berk were finally getting used to the great changes their small community had suffered: the war was over, dragons were now their allies, and Hiccup was a hero and leading authority in dragons and had gained the friendship of the rarest and most elusive dragon of them all.

Now in the minds of the villagers only one question remained…

Why in dammed fires of Hel had Hiccup named a ferocious and rare Night Furry, Toothless?

It was a mystery no one could solve. Not Stoick, not Gobber, not even Astrid who apparently knew about Hiccup's double life for a lot longer than anyone else. Anyone with functioning eyes could plainly see that the dragon had a mouth full of very shiny, very healthy and very, very sharp teeth. They could see it every time he opened his mouth to eat, every time he growled or roared there they were, almost glinting in the light and looking very real and very dangerous, and yet every time Hiccup called him by that name, the dragon would immediately answer, his pupils changed from slit-like and fierce to round and dog-like, and he would jump around and sniff at the boy in a manner that even the most battled harden Vikings had to describe as just adorable.

But the dragon still had teeth, so why the name?

Astrid had no idea, she had clearly seen Toothless's teeth when she had met him in the cove, and considering that dragons were their pets they deserved names as vicious, worthy of their status as the Viking's companions, so what has possessed Hiccup to name such an amazing warrior as Toothless such a weak-like name she would never understand. But Hiccup was certainly a unique person and it was only fair that his dragon companion and best friend would have a unique name as well.

It was kind of poetic when you really thought about it, she said. Hiccup who was so weak in body, so inferior to all of them in terms of strength and weapon mastery and yet there was something about him, he was strong in his own way, and smart and a true leader. Inside that puny body was a great men and a real chief. And Toothless was so dangerous, his claws sharp, his fire deadly and his teeth sharp, a true master of the skies and a prince among dragons. In battle he was a clever warrior with a force and power that should be reckon with and yet when Hiccup called by that silly, weak name and his eyes would turn very big and bright and he jumped around, playing and licking his face, you saw that deadly warrior when in the hands of the weakling, turned into a giant scale covered puppy.

The weak could be strong and the strong could be weak, each in their own way, she said with eyes gleaming with pride.

But Vikings weren't ones for poetry and they could see that Astrid was young and in love so they understood her for being a romantic, or as much of a romantic as a tough, no-nonsense, a little violent girl like Astrid could be.

So the mystery remained…

It had been hard to ask Stoick, not because their esteemed chief had any reluctance in giving out an honest answer but because it was incredibly hard to catch him at a time when he wasn't busy. Even with the war over, there was still a lot to do, they had lost an entire fleet to the disastrous attack on the nest, and in a small island like Berk having ships was essential, and food had to be stored for soon the ice would set in keeping away traders and putting a stop to any fishing activities and of course the nursing of his son back to full health, for although Hiccup was made of a stronger material than any of them had ever imagined the loss of a limb was no laughing matter and the boy was still given to pain and tiredness and was a possible victim of infections.

When asked the chief's face had become shocked and embarrassed and he had stuttered (in a way much like his son's) that he did not know. Such was his way that the woman who had asked had immediately felt ashamed, the chief was still full of regret for his attitude towards his son and of his little knowledge of his activities and of the workings of his mind and to remind him of his shortcomings was a bit cruel, even if unintended.

It is not as if the question had not crossed his mind before, after all he lived with the dammed beast and heard his son calling it by that ridiculous name constantly, for in the break of dawn the first sound to shatter the quiet chilly morning in his house would be the dragons rumble and roaring only to be followed by a quick and cherry _I'm coming Toothless_ and the last sound to grace it at night was a sleepy _Goodnight Toothless_. Sometimes, when the beast yawned in his sleep or when he was accompanying Hiccup, unaware of anyone else, he could swear that in his glimpses of the beast's mouth he saw nothing but red gums, indeed toothless but as soon as he tried to look again there would be the mouth full of deadly teeth and their owner staring at him.

But Hiccup had always been different he reasoned, look at all the strange things he built, at all the unimaginable adventures he had lived. If there was one thing that Hiccup was consistent at it was that he was bound to surprise everyone, it seemed that Hiccup was just not satisfied until everything around him was as strange and unusual as himself. So was it really such a shock than when he gained the friendship of the rarest and most unique dragon of them all he presented it with an equally unique name, a name that no other Viking would even think to call a dragon?

Let Hiccup call the beast whatever he wanted, it is not like the dragon would mind besides there's more important things to worry about, he said before hurrying off to his chiefly duties.

This explanation made a lot more sense to the population of Berk, after all Hiccup was an odd fellow, brilliant and amazing as recent events have proved but still very odd, it seemed natural that he would chose an odd name for his dragon. But still Stoick was no expert on the nature of Hiccup so there was a pretty big chance that he was wrong.

The people of Berk were still full of doubts…

Gobber had been their final and best chance, after all Gobber was brother in arms to Stoick, he had known Hiccup since he was a babe, he had been his teacher and friend, the two had worked together in the forge for years so if anyone had an inkling to the strange logic that Hiccup seemed to follow it was him.

They were sorely disappointed, for not only had Gobber had not had the slightest clue to the reason for such an inappropriate name he also did not have the slightest interest in the question. But it was only natural, they later concluded, Gobber was the one who had had more time to get used to Hiccup's strangeness and indeed had apparently come to fully accept it as a natural fact of life, many times in the past Gobber had even defended Hiccup and even encouraged him a little. So the oddness of the dragon's name must have been merely a drop in the sea of oddities he must have seen from Hiccup.

But he did say one thing that interested them. He claimed that Hiccup's mind worked differently from theirs, that while they saw only a straight path Hiccup would look and see hundreds of detours, some good and some bad but interesting to explore. He could take what could have been just a simple sword and turn it in one direction and then another, making a dent here and molding that, shaping and seeing it from every possible angle until it was work of art. He took leaps of logic and lines of reasoning that were impossible for them to follow so it was possible that he had seen something in the dragon that had made him think that Toothless was the correct name for it.

Or, he had laughed, it was probably meant to be ironic, some sort of joke.

Opinion of the population of Berk was divided. Some believed that Gobber was right about being about a reason they could not understand since only Hiccup's mind could explain it, others chose to believe that it was indeed supposed to be a joke, most of all, however simply believed that it was just Hiccup being Hiccup, odd, weird little Hiccup. And since the dragon had no problem with its strange name why should they.

So in time the mystery of the why of Toothless's name faded from the interest of people's minds, after all there was much more interesting things to do and Toothless remained Toothless quite happily.

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><p>Hiccup could not understand what everyone's issue with Toothless's name was. But he noticed that every time he called Toothless or talked to him, people would give him this funny look then quickly look away.<p>

Seriously what was their problem?!

Toothless barley bared his teeth at all! Every time he played with Hiccup, or licked him or just stood by his side, crooning softly as his way of communicating his teeth were always retracted in his gums. So much so that sometimes he had to remind himself that Toothless wasn't… well… toothless!

He sighed, it's probably because Toothless isn't Viking like enough for them, he told himself.

"Let's go flying bud."

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><p>Needless to say that it would take a while before the people of Berk would solve the mystery of Toothless's name.<p>

And when they did they all felt a bit stupid and a very disappointed… but after the initial shock they had to admit that it was somewhat touching the trust of a dragon had in his boy.

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><p><strong>So that's it, I hope you have enjoyed my story.<strong>

**Please review, it's really the only way I have to know if you dislike it or not.**


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